Church History 10.9.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Constantine, judging Licinius's madness intolerable, set out with justice and mercy to rescue his oppressed subjects.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:487

ὡς γὰρ εἰς ἔσχατα μανίας τὰ κατʼ αὐτὸν ἤλαυνεν, οὐκέτʼ ἀνεκτὸν εἶναι λογισάμενος βασιλεὺς ὁ τῷ θεῷ φίλος, τὸν σώφρονα συναγαγὼν λογισμὸν, καὶ τὸν στερρὸν τοῦ δικαίου τρόπον φιλανθρωπίᾳ κερασάμενος, ἄσμενος ἐπαμῦναι κρίνει τοῖς ὑπὸ τῷ τυράννῳ ταλαιπωρουμένοις, καὶ τό γε πλεῖστον ἀνθρώπων γένος, βραχεῖς λυμεῶνας ἐκποδὼν ποιησάμενος, ἀνασώσασθαι ὁρμᾶται.

English · Claude translation

For when Licinius had driven his affairs to the utmost madness, the emperor, the friend of God, judging it no longer tolerable, gathered his sound judgment, and tempering the firm character of justice with humanity, gladly decided to come to the aid of those who were being afflicted under the tyrant, and set out to save the greater part of the human race by removing a few destroyers.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:487 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.9.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/9/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.9.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/9/2/).